As Saturday night approached, Samantha felt it was such an ordeal to head out with her friends. She’d contemplate what she could wear that would hide her body and worried how many photos she’d have to untag herself from on social media. Samantha hated the way she looked.

With poor self-esteem, Samantha just wanted to enjoy the feeling of confidence that her ‘smaller’ friends seemed to have. She was envious of how comfortable they were with themselves and described herself as someone who was unfit, exercised rarely and ate ‘terribly’.

“It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for me to have a large serve of chips for lunch and then takeaway for dinner – not only was I eating a lot of bad food but not a lot of what I did eat provided much nutritional benefit,” she says.

Eventually, Samantha reached a point where she was so unhappy with how she looked and felt that something had to give. After reaching 75kg (with only a 5’1” frame) she decided to make a change. Initially starting out with a goal of losing weight and being comfortable in her clothing, Samantha would go on to find confidence in herself and become an inspiration to so many others.

But before she could do this, Samantha had to start where everybody does – at the beginning.

“I was SO unfit and didn’t know my way around the gym,” laughs Samantha, looking back on her first trip to the gym nearly five years ago.

“I used super light weights, thought cardio was the answer and struggled through everything I did,” she says.

Although she admits to having ‘hated’ training for a long time, she eventually joined a boot camp and started to enjoy working out.

“Not only could I watch myself become fitter over time, but the social aspect really made me excited to get out of bed and get to training!” she says.

As Samantha began to transform her body, she became stronger, fitter and faster. She felt less lethargic and became a much happier version of herself. No longer timid in the gym; she now lifts heavy and even keeps up with the boys.

For the rest of this article be sure to pick up a copy of the Summer Body issue of Oxygen Magazine or click here to subscribe